Electrocapillary apparatus.



PATENTED NOV. 26. 1907."

A. ORLING. ELEGTROGAPIL LARY APPARATUS.

APPLIOATIOH FILED JUNE 1. 1907.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

W1 TNFS SE S PATENTED NOV. 26, 1907.

A. 'ORLING. ELEGTROGAPILLARY APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 1, 1907.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

w I TN E55 ES I A) GLIALVRENNT'ZR W m faA-h UNITED STATES PATENT" OFFICE.

AXEL ORLING, OF UPPER TOOTING, ENGLAND.

ELEC'IRQGAPILLARY APPARATUS.

N 872,193. Specification of Letters .Patent. Patented Nov. 26, 1907.

Application filed Juno 1. 1907. Serial No. 376.876.

To all whom 'it may concern: In Fig. 1, a is a tube the ends a a of which Be it known that AxEL ORLI'NG, subject of are bent upwards and the central portion of King of Sweden, residing at 4 Buckingham of the length of which is arched upwards, the House, 111 Trinity road, Upper Tooting, rest of the length of the tube being more or 60 5 in the county of Surrey, England, have less exactly horizontal. This tube is se invented new and useful Improvements in cured to a bracket 1) by cement or otherwise, Electrocapillary Afpparatus, of which the the bracket being adapted to be adjusted in following is a speci 'cation. hei ht bymeans of the elongated holes b b This invention relates to electro-capillary anfscrews. The tube contains two plugs c c 65 apparatus wherein two dissimilar liquids are of electrically conducting liquid, as for exarranged to make contact with one another ample mercury, Which ,plugs are separated within a capillary passage and-in which an by a plu d composed of a dissimilar electricelectric current is adapted to be transmitted ally conducting liquid as for example dilute or electrical impulses passed from one liquid sulfuric acid. From one plug a to the other 70 to the other, with the efiect that. the transelectric impulses are transmitted through mission of an impulse causes the displacethe separating plug ofliquid d, the impulses ment of the liquids and their meeting surface. being conveyed by the leads e e to and from According to this invention the liquids are the plugs c c. In the upturned ends of thecontained in a fixed horizontally situated tube a are inserted the downward bent ends 75 tube and are caused to operate inthe manf f of a rod f which, .at the center of its ner of a fluid piston or plunger andl'transmit length, is pivoted on a filament 9, held in their movement to a delicately sus ended tension. Secured to the rod f-and the fila oscillatingmember the movement 0 which ment 9 is a fine bore siphon tube It the short member is adapted to produce one ofseveral leg k of which dips into an ink receptacle "5' 80 desired effects such for example as theindiand the long leg h of which is adapted to cation or record of the character of the immake light contact with a traveling record pulses, the introduction" of a relay in the ing tape 7'; To eliminate friction' between electrical system,- the :starting of a IIlBC-hfill. the extremity of h and the tape j,,a vibraism or'the like. C tory movement of very small amplitude is 85 In order that the apparatus may respond iven to h by the emplo *ment of a revolving. to. a very rapid succession of comparatively disk lc havin a serrate periphery, a'spring feeble electric impulses it is important that m, the end 0 which is kept in contact therethe mass which, y electro-capillary action with, and a thread n uniting the spring m andis'required to vibrate, be as small as possible the siphon leg h. Y I 90 consistent with the production of suflicient With such an apparatus if electr ic. im-

force to actuate with preoisionthe indicating, pulses are transmitted through the leads e c recording or other member whose movement then, by electro-capillary actlon, the liquids is required to be effected thereby. c d 0 will undergo a small displacement in the 'On the accompanying drawing is shown as direction of the electric current and therefore -95 40 representative examples various forms of a ulsating or alternating electric current construction of apparatus adapted to fulfil roduce a pulsating movement in the the purpose of this invention. liqui s c d c which will be communicated to In this drawing:Figure 1 shows the conthe oscillating membelllf causing it to angu: trivance fitted inv a manner to effect a conlar-ly vibrate with the ament g as its ivot." 100 tinuous record of the transmitted electric The angular vibration of f will cause t e er impulses on a traveling tape by the use of the tremity of the siphon tube hi to undergo horlknown siphon recorder. Fig. 2 shows how zontalto and fro excursions, the amphtude the same instrument may be adapted to inand periodicity of which Will be recorded by troduce a rela capable of reproducing the the tracing of an ink line on the traveling 105 periodicity of t e electric impulseswith magta e 7'. nified intensity and indicating how those l ig. 2 shows how a vibrating rod 0 which more powerful impulses ma be utilized in is substituted for the recording siphon h, or

actuating mechanisms. igs. 3-8 show employed in addition thereto as shown 1n modifications in the details of the apparatus. Fig. 9, may be caused to reproduce the pe- 110 Fig. 9 shows the arrangements shownin Figs. riodicity of theelectric impulses on a mag- 1 and 2 combined. nified scale by invoking an electrical relay.

f. In Fig. 5 a construction a is For this purpose the end of the rod 0 vibrates in contact with a plate of which the ortion p which is on the right of an insulatmg strip 10 is connected to one pole of a local battery g g while the other ortion p is connected to the other ole of the battery the lead g which joins t e cells of one half the battery to those of the other half being connected up to the rod 0 by a lead r. By means of this device, when the rod 0 is in contact with p an electric current will flow from the lportion g of the battery in one direction a ong the lead r and when the extremity of 0 is in contact with p a current will flow from the portion g of the battery in the op osite direction along the same lead 1'. If in t e circuit of r is placed an instrument adapted to be actuated by electric excitation in opposite ways by opposite currents such an instrument represented by R will be operated in response to feeble im ulses transmitted through the leads e e. instrument such as Q in the circuit of p and will respond to impulses in one direction only, another instrument such as Q in the circuit of p and g responding only to impulses in the opposite direction. To eliminate friction between the extremity of the rod 0 and the plates 12 12 11 a vibratin device like that previously described is employed.

Figs. 3-5 show modifications in the construction of the tube a. In Fig. 3 the tube is of uniform bore throu hout and the arched central portion a is om tted. In Fig. 4 the turned up ends a a. are reduced in diameter for the purpose of magnifying the amplitude of the movement of the upward turned ends of the plugs of mercury c c and increasing the angle ofvibration of the oscillatin member i ormed in the center of the length of the tube 0 wherein is contained the plug (1 of li uid dissimilar the tube. The smaller the bore of the passage m which the dissimilar liquids meet the more sensitive is the electro-capillary action.

Ifig. 6 shows a modified construction in which the tube .9 contains only one plug t of mercury and only one surface of contact of the dissimilar liquids namely the left end of t, some dilute sulfuric acid it being inserted in the left end of the tube s. The u ward turned end 8 of the tube is inclose by a tube '1; fitted with a plug '0 the space within the tube 0 being occupied by air which, with the vibratory movement of the liquids t and u, will undergo expansion and contraction. The oscillating member consists of a flat ended bent glass rod w pivoted at an adjusted into light pressure contact with the convex right hand end of the plug of mercury t and maintained in contact by spring pressure or by gravity. The volume and the pressure of the air confined in the tube 4) can be ad justed by sliding it over the upturned end 8 By this construction the mass of fluid to be moved can be reduced to a minimum and the instrument rendered responsive to electric impulses of very short eriod. Inasmuch as the repulsion which exists between mercury and glass is most pronounced when the glass is quite dry it will be desirable to provide means for the introduction of the plug of sulfuric acid electrolyte to effect the separation of the two plugs of mercury with a minimum amount of wetting of the containing glass tube. Fig. 7 shows a construction for this purpose. I

Fig. 8 shows an alternative construction of a portion of Fig; 2 in which for the plate 1) p p is substituted a composite revolving drum y y y, y being an insulating disk.

1 claim.

1. An indicator of successive electric impulses, comprising a fixed, horizontally situated, capillary passage, two plugs of electrically conductlve, immiscible liquids contained therein in contact with one another, two terminals of an electric circuit, one in electric connection with one lic uid and the other with the second and oscil ating memher in such contact with one of the plugs of liquid and so mounted as to be adapted to partake of its pulsating movements.

2. An indicator of successive electric impulses, comprising a fixed, horizontally situated capillary passage having a short portion of its length slightly arched, two plugs of f pulsating movements. to that which occupies the ot er portions of 3. An indicator of successive electric impulses, comprising a fixed horizontally situated capillary passage, two plugs of electrically conductive, immiscible liquids contained thereln in contact with one another, two- .terminals of an electric circuit, one 1n electric connection with one liquid and the other with the second and a pivoted oscillating member in contact with one extremity of one of the plugs of liquid.

4.-. An indicator of successive electric impulses, comprising a fixed horizontally situated capillary passage, two lu s of electrically con ctive, immiscib e liquids. contained therein in contact with one another, two terminals of an electric circuit, one in electric connection with one li uid and the other with the second, an oscil ating mem her in contact with one of the plugs of liquid and so mounted as to be adapted to partake of its pulsating movements and a recording device, one element of which is connected to the said oscillating member.

ally conductive, immiscible 1qu1ds contained therem in contact with one another, two terminals of an electric circuit, one in electric connection with one 11 uid and the other with the second, a pivoted oscillatin member in contact with one extremity oi one of the plugs of liquid, a siphon recordin tube secured to the oscillating member and a recording stri in moving contact with the extremity o the siphon tube.

7. An indicator of successive electric impulses, comprising a fixed horizontally situated capillary passage, two plu s of electrice iquids conally conductive, immiscib one another,

tained therein incontact with two terminals of an electric circuit, one in electric connection with one liquid and the other with the second, a pivoted oscillating member in contact with one extremity of one of the plugs of liquid and a device for making intermittent contact of which one terminal is in electric connection with a movable finger secured to the oscillating member and the other to a conductor'with which the extremity of the said finger makes intermittent contact.

8'. An indicator of successive electric impulses, comprising a fixed horizontally situated capillary passage, two plugs of electrically conductive, immiscible liquids contained' therein in contact with one another, two terminals of an electric circuit, one in electric connection with one liquid and the other with the second, a pivoted oscillating member in contact with one extremity of one of the plugs of liquid and a device for making intermittent contact of which one terminal is in electric connection with a movable finger secured to the oscillating member and the other to a circular revolving conductonwith the peri hery 0" which the extremity of the said i inger n tkes intermittent contact.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification'in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

. i AXEL ORLING. Witnesses:

F. W. LANE,

H. D. JAMESON. 

